How Merlin Should Have Ended
by Ray Rider
Summary: Based on a YouTube video, the link of which can be found inside.


**AN: First of all, this is based on a YouTube video, the link of which shall be at the bottom. Every word and scene is from that video. DUe to this, there are some scenes in the story which will require a lot of...imagination.**

When Arthur opened his eyes he had to struggle not to give an immediate wince of pain. His ribs felt as if they had been used for target practice, and not the kind he forced Merlin to go through. The bad kind. He then spotted Merlin, a few feet ahead of him, crouched down, his back to Arthur. It seemed that his servant was keeping watch, and despite the fact that Arthur doubted that Merlin could defend both himself and his wounded master Arthur could not help but take solace in his friend's loyalty.

"Merlin." He called out.

His servant turned from his position and walked back towards Arthur at a brisk pace.

"How are you feeling?" He asked as he crouched down next to Arthur.

When Arthur tried to move himself into a better position he felt a tremendous amount of pain course through him causing him to give a few undignified sounds of pain. He grabbed onto his friends shoulder, trying to stabilize himself, in return, Merlin put a comforting arms on Arthur's own shoulder, guiding Arthur back into his previous spot.

"Lie back, lie back." He said soothingly.

"Where have you been?" Arthur managed to say through the pain, only now remembering that Merlin hadn't been with him during the battle, something that both surprised and hurt him a little. Merlin had always been by his side, and to see that he'd abandoned Arthur in his most fierce battle was something that caused a small part of him to cry out. But that didn't matter, at least his friend was with him here, now.

Merlin gave a small, pained smile. "Doesn't matter now."

The pain in Arthur's ribcage increased slightly.

"Argh," Arthur gave another grunt of pain. "My side."

"You are bleeding." Merlin commented in his usual idiotic way. The words however were far more hollow than previous times, happier times.

"That's alright." Arthur said, attempting levity. "I thought I was dying."

There was a small moment of silence in which neither of them said anything, but Merlin started speaking again just as Arthur's head started to spin slightly.

"I'm sorry." He said, as if somehow Arthur dying was his fault. Despite their bantering, Arthur would never blame his friend for anything. "I thought I'd defied the prophecy."

At these words however, Arthur thought he was starting to go a bit delusional, perhaps going into shock like Gaius said people tended to do, He gave a small smile and decided to humor himself a little.

"What are you talking about?" He asked.

After another short pause, Merlin explained.

"I defeated the Saxons. The dragon. I-In the end, I knew it was Mordred I must stop."

Arthur was now one hundred percent sure that he was delusional, ignoring the fact that Merlin didn't have magic, it was the old man who defeated the Saxons, not Merlin.

"I'm a sorcerer."

The pure emotion which went into these words was enough to convince Arthur that Merlin was telling the truth. And this killed him. It killed him more than his wound could ever hope to achieve. His oldest friend had been going behind his back and betraying him all this time. And he himself had been blind to it.

Merlin continued and it was only then that he noticed that Arthur still had his hand on Merlin's shoulder and Merlin had placed his own hand over it.

"I have magic." He said, tears starting to leak from his eyes. In Camelot, that would be as good a confession as any. "And I use it, for you Arthur. Only for you."

At these words, Arthur could not help but once again feel absolute pride at his servant's loyalty. Despite the fact that it was sorcery, it was comforting to know that Merlin only used it for his King. It was then that Arthur realized that no matter what, Merlin would always be loyal to him, whether it be out of duty or friendship. Magic may be evil, but Merlin wasn't. Merlin was the epitome of all that was good in the world.

When Merlin could spot no signs of emotion on Arthur's face he assumed that the king did not believe him for he proceeded to give a demonstration.

"Here." Merlin said, nodding his head. He outstretched his hand slightly at the fire and whispered in the Old Religion.

"_Upastige draca!_" A small dragon rose from the flames, it's body made of the fire it was born from. It flapped it's wings a few times before it dissipated into the night sky.

A third, longer moment of silence engulfed them both. Merlin was presumably waiting for his friend's judgement whether it be for better or worse. Arthur was deciding how best to respond.

"You cheated." Arthur said.

For a second, Merlin's mind went blank. Then he understood that Arthur referred to all the times when Merlin had finished his chores right on time, something which was impossible seeing as how much the king gave Merlin to do. At this realization, Merlin could not help but feel a spark of hope. Arthur wasn't talking about executing him, rather he was making jokes, something which encourage the warlock a little.

"Why did you never tell me?" Arthur asked.

Merlin thought up the various reasons. He could say that it was to protect Arthur, or that he best worked in the shadows, or that he didn't want glory for his actions. But all these would be lies. It was perhaps best to go with cold, hard, selfish truth.

"You'd have chopped my head off." Merlin said.

"I'm not sure what I would've done." The king said, just as honest as Merlin had been.

"And I didn't want to put you in that position." Merlin replied, finding that these words, though not selfish, were completely true.

Arthur was once again comforted by how much his friend cared for him. How could he have ever, even for a second, have thought that Merlin was anything but totally loyal to Arthur?

"You ready?" Merlin asked. "Let's go."

"What are you doing?" Arthur asked as his servant stood up and started to walk to a nearby clearing. Once he was near the centre, he looked up at the sky and once again started to speak in the Old Religion.

"_O drakon! E male so ftengometta tesd'hup'anankes!_" Throughout this, Arthur stared at Merlin, wondering what spell his friend was trying to perform. He soon got his answer when, from far in the sky, he could see a suspiciously familiar dragon start to fly towards them. It hovered a few feet in front of Merlin before it landed, a benign expression on his face.

Merlin looked at Arthur, a smile on his face. "It's alright."

Merlin then gave a small chuckle, and despite himself, Arthur joined in, giving a few chortles himself, sounding insane to even himself. The effort however caused him to become dizzy and pass out from exhaustion. Merlin quickly ran over to Arthur and checked his pulse. He sighed in relief when he felt it still there and walked back towards the dragon.

"I have one last favour to ask."

The dragon then took both Merlin and Arthur on his back, and all three of them started to fly away. Arthur was resting on one of Kilgharrah's many protruding spines in front of Merlin. In the meanwhile, Merlin tried to telepathically contact Gaius and, after a few tries, it worked. He quickly explained the situation to his friend and mentor.

_"There must be something that we can do, Gaius." _He said telepathically.

_"In the midst of the Lake Of Avalon there is an ancient isle. You must take him there."_

Soon, dragon, king, and warlock were near the small island. Kilgharrah landed and let the two friends get off before taking off without a word.

Merlin was glad that Arthur was currently unconscious. If he was awake, then he would certainly put Merlin in the stocks for what he was about to do, regardless of the fact that he had accepted magic.

He lugged Arthur towards the lake before pushing him into it, hoping with all his might that his friend wouldn't drown.

Merlin did however keep Excalibur in his hands, it wouldn't do for the sword to accidentally stab Arthur.

Merlin look at the lake as Arthur fell to the bottom. "You are my friend, and I don't want to lose you."

Merlin remembered Gaius' words when Merlin asked why he himself could not heal Arthur.

_"Not even you cannot hope to thwart such magic. Only the Sidhe possess such magic."_

Out of nowhere, a man and woman appeared. The man standing off to the side on the grassy hill while the woman seemed to float in the lake. She outstretched her hand and Arthur rose up from the water, still unconscious but his wound now gone and his face much less pale.

* * *

As Arthur and Merlin rode into Camelot the king noticed the smile which refused to leave his friend's face.

"You look happy Merlin." Arthur observed.

"I am." He said simply.

"Good." Arthur said. The he took a deep breath. "I-I-" It seemed that he was pained to say the words, something which only made Merlin's smile bigger. "I want to say something I've never said to you before."

"Thank you." Arthur finally said to his friend.

"It's good to have you back."

Unbeknownst to them both, Gwen was watching through the window, and, upon spotting them, ran down towards them.

When she came up to Arthur, no words were spoken. Their relationship did not need them. Instead, they held each others hands and simply smiled.

* * *

After Arthur had explained his idea to his wife he said:

"You think I'm mad, don't you?"

"No." His wife said, both of them in one of the many corridors of the castle. "Who am I to say what you should do?"

"It is your opinion I believe above all others." Arthur responded.

"I'm flattered, but perhaps-" She was interrupted by Arthur.

"It's time we stepped out from that shadow." Arthur looked at her, determined. "I don't believe everyone who practices magic is evil."

Gwen nodded. "Perhaps that's true."

"Then isn't it time we stopped treating them like they are?" Arthur asked. "Sometimes I feel like my judgement has been clouded by hatred, and fear."

"That is a courageous attitude." Gwen said comfortingly to her king.

"I don't know if it's courageous or foolish. I still don't happen to know what I think." Arthur confessed.

"You're not a fool Arthur." Gwen soothed. "You have a good heart and good instincts. You have to trust those instincts."

Arthur thought back to his and Gwen's wedding, where he had gone with his heart and instincts and chosen to marry the woman he loved rather than the princess of some foreign kingdom like so many other kings.

* * *

Later, Arthur talked with Merlin.

"Perhaps..my father was wrong. Perhaps the old ways aren't as evil as we thought." At these words, Merlin's eyes lit up like like the sun on a warm summer's day. "Magic will reign once more in Camelot. Is that what you'd want?"

In a week, hoarse voice, Merlin replied, "Yes."

* * *

The Next Day

The next day, after the previous night's worth of convincing the council to abolish the rules regarding magic (and succeeding), Merlin walked into Arthur's chambers. The king was sitting in front of his desk. When Merlin came up to him, Arthur gave a casual smile and tipped his chin, the gesture which Merlin came to learn indicated that he wanted something.

Arthur got up from his seat and walked around the room a little.

"So," The king started off. "I need your help in...um." He made another weird gesture, this time with his hands. This one, Merlin could not decipher. So instead, Merlin guiltily took a quick glance at his friend's mind.

It seemed that Arthur had been slightly awake during his time on Kilgharra's back and had enjoyed the feeling of being thousands of feet in the air. Merlin wasn't surprised considering how much Arthur lived off adrenaline.

"Dragon." Merlin said, rolling his eyes at his friend's reluctance to ask for help.

"Well yes." Arthur said. "Just point me in the right direction."

"Of course." Merlin replied. Arthur jumped around on the spot a bit to get himself ready, something which Merlin found a bit stupid but who was he to question his king's actions?

* * *

For once, Merlin chose not to use his Dragonlord status to order Kilgharra to appear. Instead, he allowed Arthur and his tracking skills to lead them to the old dragon. It took them a while, but after many crossroads and forests Arthur commented that they were near. The problems was that they had to cross a river and there was no bridge in sight.

Merlin smiled. "I think you're going to get wet."

After crossing the river they happened upon The Great Dragon who allowed the two friends to once more ride on his back.

Kilgharra then proceeded to fly the two around a little, sometimes even performing dangerous manoeuvrings.

"This isn't good!" Arthur shouted from thousands of feet in the air. "We're gonna die!" Arthur cried out, not in fear but in excitement.

Merlin felt the need to add some background music and started to make some sounds.

"We're gonna die!" Arthur once again said.

"No we're not." Merlin responded.

"Whatever."

Kilgharrrah, perhaps wanting to shake Merlin's conviction and further strengthen Arthur's, spun around and started to fly upside, a feat that Merlin didn't know the dragon possessed.

"Oh shit!" The warlock cried out.

"Oh my god!" The King of Camelot shouted.

Merlin and Arthur both screamed in excitement and joy. Merlin may have been in these skies before, but he'd never had anyone to enjoy them with.

"Oh god, oh god." The king screamed.

The two friends and dragon laughed into the night sky.

* * *

**AN:This is going to be a long one.  
**

**There are probably a few mistakes seeing as how this was written in a few hours and I didn't go back and read it. I'll probably do that later. **

**By the way, here's the link for the video:**

watch?v=IpCpthM93ME

**Since FanFiction doesn't allow links then just paste that in after the "/" of any YouTube link.**

**The full link can also be found on my profile.**

**Oh, and sometime in late 2013 or early 2014, I'm going to start a new Merlin story. This will pick up right where the series ended (And yes I mean the scene in modern day with the lorry). It will be a reincarnation story but everyone other than Merlin and Arthur will be reincarnated. **

**This is because Merlin is immortal and Arthur will rise from the lake with the same body and memories as he had in the last episode. Old Merlin in the last scene was only an ageing potion and Merlin is forever youthful. But that's only when Arthur is dead, when Arthur's alive, Merlin will age normally and can eventually die.**

**Something I've noticed about reincarnated Merlin stories is that it's either set in a post apocalyptic world such as World War Three, or it's about something stupid like Camelot is a retail store and Albion is the name of the company that owns it. These would be alright if there was no mention of past lives but there are! How do you go from Prince of Camelot to assistant manager of Tescos? So instead, my story will be about Arthur and his friends trying to unite the entire world (Not just the UK). I considered having him be Prince William and Gwen Kate Middleton but decided against it because Arthur needed to rise out of the lake.**

**Here are the list of people who will be reincarnated:**

**Gwen**

**Leon**

**Lancelot**

**Gwaine**

**Percival**

**Elyan**

**Gaius**

**Morgana (Maybe)**

**Mordred (Maybe)  
**

**Morgause (Maybe)**

**Cenred (Maybe)**


End file.
